Ah, it is nice to be able to log into VMware Communities again. Thanks to whomever got my account fixed.
[Please note that Workstation and Ubuntu both have graphical concepts called Unity that have nothing to do with one another. I am specifically referring to the integration of Workstation with UBUNTU'S desktop known as Unity, hencforrth known as Unity for purpose of this discussion.]
Ubuntu's Unity desktop does not support the VMware Tray (vmware-tray). As I understand it, vmware-tray needs to be modified to use the indicator API when present, and the existing API when indicator is not present. Unlike Ubuntu 11.04, the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 no longer offers the option of staying with the well-tested (and well-liked) Gnome v2, which does support the existing vmware-tray.
As an aid to VMware's developers, I am attaching a sample python program that does this same sort of thing (but for a different problem domain). It acts as an indicator when that API is available, as a Gnome applet otherwise; and works with Fedora, SuSE, and all versions of Ubuntu (with and without Unity). Of course, if you'd publish the source for the linux version of vmware-tray, the community could maintain the code.
There is another thing that my sample code does, which perhaps should be done by vmware-tray as well: it supports inhibiting shutdown. It is exceedingly annoying to shutdown a system having forgotten to suspend all currently running VMs. An alternative, which I looking at, is to suspend any running VMs at system shutdown using a script. A sort of obvious thing for which I am surprised there isn't already a canned script.
